My neck is feeling better, about 75%, still can’t look to the right all the way. But I have been soldiering through, stitching on Newcastle and Changing World. I finished the black border on CW, somehow I was one stitch off. It was easy to fix, just added one more stitch to the chevron. I looked and looked to see where the error was, but everything lines up, and all my chevrons are the correct number of Xs. I have made a bit of progress on the border of NB, most of the lower border lines are stitched and part of the right side. I have been sticking to my alternate days of stitching each project, and I’m happy with it.

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I took last night off from cross stitching and knitted a section of the Wild Bees shawl. This shawl has been next to the stitching chair for the past few weeks, but gathering dust not stitches. The next shawl installment from Curious Handmade comes out Monday, I don’t think I’ll be done with it by then. I still want to work on the Bees for now, I really like the pattern and can see the “bees” in the pattern. The pattern is four sided which, for me, seems to make it easier not to loose my place. The way the pattern is written out, line by line, is helping, as I can do one repeat per side and know its counted/stitched correctly. Crescent shawls I have trouble with when I get the end and have extra/not enough stitches. Marker help, but when its an increase row, the markers move and well, I get mixed up and mis-stitches happen.

In a whirl of cleaning I tackled a cabinet the other night. It is a cabinet in my former sewing room, when it was down stairs. I hadn’t needed anything out of it and I figured, after four years, anything that was in there wasn’t useful. I grabbed a trash bag and started emptying it. It was mostly cut off pieces of battings, I will make some franken- battings out of those. There was some dried up glue and painting supplies, and some Christmas ribbons. A whole pile of children’s drawings and school projects from twenty years ago, I tried not to get lost in that nostalgia, and left it there. It’s safe and will get filed another time, I have three pretty boxes that I save my kids stuff in. I may or may not present it to them someday, but those little pieces of life still “mean” a lot to me.

I also found this sampler that I stitched in the 1970’s, that makes it vintage. I remember stitching this so vividly, how I enjoyed its simple colors and motifs. I was probably 12 or 13 at the time, I was into needlework then, especially crewel and embroidery. I didn’t know about counted cross stitch until the mid 80’s. I was thinking of cleaning it, but then I started thinking about the threads and how they may run. I think I will frame it “as-is” and enjoy the natural antique-y ness of the linen.

Be Kind.

Yesterday upon getting out of bed, I turned my head and something happened to my neck. It was very painful, I went to my chiropractor and she worked on it for a bit. I was able turn my head to the right about 15 degrees by the end of the day. Lots of sitting and icing made time for hand stitching. I finished the Elefantz block I’ve been working on this month, while my Q24 stitched out another two rows of pantographs. I finished the moth and started the border on the NB sampler too.

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Then I moved to stitching the Changed World sampler. This new sampler is the one I started on August 1st, as a SAL with Judy at Patchwork Times, Denise at Just Quilting and Jo at Jo’s Country Junction. It’s a loose and stitch when you can sort of SAL. Check ins are Fridays, and this is what I have for the first five days of stitching. Since I am now stitching two samplers, I have decided that I will stitch the Newcastle Bouquet on even numbered days and Changed world on odd numbered days.

I’m using a hoop for this one, I started out using a Q-snap frame, but it was too heavy. I liked the space it had for stitching and the ease of getting the fabric into it, but it was too much strain on my wrist to hold it. I switched to a little hoop after trying a 10 inch plastic hoop (too heavy) and it seems to be okay. Recently I saw a hoop holder on a floss-tube, made by Lowery. I liked that it was adjustable and metal with a small footprint. It also can hold hoops or frames, my current holder is only for scroll frames. I found one at Love Crafts and with a promotional coupon and a bit of wavering (do I really need it?) I ordered it. I feel like I am at the dentist when I sit in my stitching chair. I have a light over my head, a magnifier and small table on the right, the frame holder on the left and a foot stool in front. My DH wonders why I don’t jump up to get the phone when it rings.

A little more sewing was done on the Washboard road top. I squared up all the blocks and started to web the top. I think I’ll get it done this weekend. Especially because I have two days to myself, my DH is going on a short road trip with friends. Thankfully, my neck is feeling much better today and I’ll be sewing a lot this weekend.

Be Kind.

Today I am working on getting the Washboard road blocks organized. I have all of the halves made, and since I want to make an ombre/fade pattern with them I figured that it would be easier this way. I spent the last few days making the pieces, and yes, I made half of them facing the wrong way. In my defense, I am using solid color fabrics, so it can easy to flip things around or over to the wrong side. I just feel a bit ashamed (not really, more mad at myself) that I did it 79 times. Chain piecing is a blessing and a burden, at least that’s what I told myself as I was ripping out and resewing those parts. I am using the spare bed in the guest room to lay them out on, not too sure I want to do the bending down thing today.

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Last night I started to stitch the moth in the left hand corner of the Newcastle Bouquet piece. This moth is what first attracted me to this sampler, I saw Jo Kramer stitching it last year and wanted to make it too. I also got and kitted up Heaven and Nature (another Teresa Kogut design) because of Jo showing hers. On that sampler, it was a raccoon that attracted me. Sunday, August 1 starts the Changed World SAL hosted by Patchwork Times, Jo’s Country Junction, and Just Quilting’. This will be a departure of my stead fast rule for my cross stitching, ‘only one project at a time’. As I am well aware, it is hard for me to show restraint when it comes to starting new things. I always have a few Quilty things going on, a knitting piece, handwork and a pile of UFOs. When I re-started cross stitching, I told myself I wasn’t going to be taken in by the start-itis I have with all my other hobbies/etc. I have all the excuses (I just wrote excesses there) its a smaller piece, its a SAL, I like the pattern, I’m almost done with the Newcastle… I think I will alternate days I stitch on each, that’s reasonable, lol.

I finally finished the LA quilting on the large Chickadee panel quilt. You probably heard my sigh of relief as those last four locking stitches ended on the last row. I am planning on putting the yellow and navy table runner I made recently on the end of the backing of this quilt. I think there may be enough, but I just wanted to be done, so I left, and enjoyed my sense of accomplishment. This quilt used up about 600 yards of thread, not too bad, there wasn’t a lot of back stitching or retracing of the design (Thankful flowers). It was a complicated design though, so my machine had to slow down a bit for all those curves and bubbles. Each row took about two hours and fifteen minute to stitch out. There was no thread breakage and the only time I had to stop was when I ran out of bobbin thread mid-row. I want to finish the other two tops with the Julie Paschkis fabrics in them, that I made earlier this year. I am thinking of a paw print panto though, as they have cat and animal themed prints.

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Be Kind.

I recently got a pattern from Highway 10 Designs, called ‘Washboard Road’. I cut all the pieces for the throw size yesterday and started sewing them together. It uses a jelly roll and 3 1/4 yards of background, I had a jelly roll of solid teal shades and enough plain vanilla white to do this. The hard part will be getting the blocks to play nicely together. I am planning on an ombre sort of look, fading from light to dark.

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The Newcastle Bouquet cross stitch marathon is continuing. I am not going to finish it before Sunday, but I feel like I have made progress. I am starting the Changed World SAL on August 1, so I will have two projects going at once. I would rather not do this, because I know I’ll end up with a UFO. It is a slippery slope with quilting, and I didn’t want to start back in with the cross stitchery. Changed World is a smaller piece, finished size is 9″ x 14″, while Newcastle is a bit bigger at 17″ x 10″. Also NB is on 40 count linen, while CW is 36 count. I am going to stitch CW in a hoop, so NB will stay on the frame, switching between them won’t be too difficult as I will still need the magnifier to stitch.

I was out shopping last week in a neighboring town/city, and parked in front of their local Goodwill store. Once I got my errand done, I figured I would go in to check out any frames that may work for cross stitch. They had a bunch of framed “art”, and I found one that may work so I went to up to pay for it. While standing in line I noticed a woman ahead of me holding two Omni-grid rulers. I asked her where she found them and she said in the back area, and that there was one left. I went back and looked, and there were two, a 12 ½ inch square and a 21″ x 8″, they were marked 4.99 and 6.99, woohoo! score! I hope the person who donated them knows they went to two people who appreciate them.

Going to try to get another row of quilting done today, small goals. I really like the way this is stitching out on my Chickadee quilt so far. I have enough room on the backing to add this table runner I “whipped up” this past weekend. I want to do some ruler work on it. Another Quick Curve Ruler project called Summer Citrus from the book ‘One Wonderful Curve’.

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Off to sew a bunch of tiny X’s.

Be Kind.

I got the Posh Snowball top together. I wanted to add an outer border of the dark brown print, but I didn’t have enough left over. So I made another white and small square border, then cut and pressed the binding. I really like how this turned out, I am not sure how I want to quilt it though.

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Yesterday I got the two quilts, Small Chickadee and the Bees, squared up and bound (above, right). I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the dark brown binding looked against the black. I was able to put the bigger Chickadee panel quilt on the frame too. I found a panto that has flowers and circles much like those on the fabric. It is called Thankful Flowers, and it takes about two hours to stitch a row. Thank goodness I had the sense to mount this top longways, as there are only 5 rows. Ten plus hours of quilting, it is a good thing I can multitask.

Speaking of, I have been working on this BOM by Elefantz, called Simple Days. I just finished the first blocks embroidery, and downloaded the sixth block of the nine block quilt. I have two more blocks sewn together, but its the embroidery that takes a while.

I am contemplating starting something new. I want to explore the curves a bit more, with the Sew Kind of Wonderful quick curve rulers. Maybe a table runner, since I finally received the fabric I ordered 5 weeks ago for one. I like this one, a bit mid-century modern, below.

Lastly, I received the pastel batiks I ordered for the borders of the snails trails baby quilts. Got one done yesterday, hoping to get the peachy one done today. I positioned the blocks differently on each, I can’t decide which one I like better.

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Be Kind.